'Were it not for that,' proceeded Taube, 'I should have much pleasure in congratulating your excellency. The king advanced the brave volunteer to the grade of captain of the guards upon the spot.' 'My hero! my Arwed!' exulted Georgina in her heart, and her white hand waved a fond kiss towards the west. 'Such transient gleams of military success give me more anxiety than pleasure,' said Ulrika. 'They decide not the main question, and serve only to increase my brother's obstinacy. His game is lost beyond remedy. Continued misfortune would finally open his eyes and induce him to take the only course by which he can save himself.' 'That would have happened long ago,' whispered Taube to her, 'did not baron Goertz, through his _fata morgana_, know how to keep up his sinking hopes.' 'Very true!' said Gyllenstierna. 'And had it not been for his experiment of debasing the coin, this campaign would have been impossible.' 'Indeed,' added Taube: 'were the old heathen gods, whom he has conjured up from the vasty deep, to bring national bankruptcy upon Sweden, what would the foreigner care?' 'I know not among men one whom I so cordially hate as this Goertz,' said Ulrica in an under tone, and her eyes gleamed so fiercely that Georgina, who from her concealment saw the look, shrunk with fear, although she did not hear the words that accompanied it. A chamberlain in service now announced to Ulrika that baron Goertz, who had just arrived from Aland, and was passing through Stockholm on his way to Frederickshall, begged permission to wait upon her royal highness. 'It is not granted!' said Ulrika with cold disdain. 'I know not,' whispered Taube to her, 'if your highness would do well to render your displeasure palpable to this cunning man. The mortified ambition of a parvenu is revengeful, and Goertz proceeds hence directly to his majesty.' 'Am I not mistress even in my own apartment!' cried Ulrika with vehemence. 'It has come to a fine pass!' She arose from the table and laid down her cards. 'I am indisposed,' said she to the chamberlain: 'am about to withdraw to my chamber, and can see no one.' The servant bowed and retired to deliver the ungracious message. The princess called her ladies and hurried from the saloon, which was soon filled with the timid murmurs of the courtiers. Taube took the arm of Gyllenstierna, and walked up and down the room in a low and anxious conversation with him. 'My poor father! how hast thou with thy warm, and generous heart, strayed to this cold and hostile kind!' cried Georgina, who had closely observed the last scene;--and, careless of the remarks which her disregard of etiquette might elicit, she hastened from the assembly to greet her beloved father. CHAPTER VI.